"Inmates Running the Asylum"

[Beverly Flanigan]

And to the Marquis de Sade?  The phrase is used in the movie "Quills," at
any rate!

At 09:41 AM 4/9/01 -0400, you wrote:
>         The concept, if not the words, is an old one, dating back at least
>to Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor
>Fether."  A quick Internet search provides various dates, from 1844 to 1856,
>but obviously the story in reality cannot be any later than Poe's death in
>1849.  From the version at
>
>http://www.textual.net/poe/tarrandfether.htm
>
> >>And, sure enough, one fine morning the keepers found themselves pinioned
>hand and foot, and thrown into the cells, where they were attended, as if
>they were the lunatics, by the lunatics themselves, who had usurped the
>offices of the keepers. <<
>
>John Baker
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bapopik at AOL.COM [SMTP:Bapopik at AOL.COM]
> > Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 6:41 PM
> > To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject:      "Inmates Running the Asylum"
> >
> >    The person who asked for my address here was someone from a WWII
> > submarine museum I had queried about the "submarine sandwich."
> > (USS=United States Ship.)
> >    The query (attached below) is about "inmates running the asylum."  I
> > hope this doesn't imply something about our armed forces.
> >    I can't find an easy answer to this.  I think I've heard it used for
> > the 1930s Marx Brothers films, for Spike Jones, and for screwball comedies
> > such as BRINGING UP BABY, but I don't recall an exact source.  My friend
> > at work recalls a baseball usage in 1961. << Message: Phrase Origin >>


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm